Sonia Romanoff attacks a paparazzo

As I always maintained, you know an iconicity of a photo by looking at parodies and pastiches it caused. I first saw this with Cameron Diaz reenacting the scene (see below), photographed by James White. The original is, of course, above–actress Sonia Romanoff attacking a paparazzo with ice-cream in Rome’s historic Via Venato in 1966. The paparazzo in question was Rino Barillari, self-styled king of paparazzi, who was one of the original paparazzi whose antics inspired Federico Fellini to make La Dolce Vita.

Sonia Romanoff–an unsuccessful Yugoslavia-born actress–eventually married an 81-year old count to get an Italian citizenship and disappeared into obscurity. The above photo by Giacomo Alexis has been her only milestone.

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Sonia Romanoff–an unsuccessful Yugoslavia-born actress–eventually married an 81-year old count to get an Italian citizenship and disappeared into obscurity. The above photo by Giacomo Alexis has been her only milestone.